


Just a Bad Dream

by fuelthefire



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-22
Updated: 2019-10-22
Packaged: 2020-12-28 02:21:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21129191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fuelthefire/pseuds/fuelthefire
Summary: Maya has a stupid dream.One-shot. Spoilers for BL3.





	Just a Bad Dream

**Author's Note:**

> The next chapter of "With Friends Like These" is in the works, I just had to get this off my chest.
> 
> Gearbox killed this character well before she ever met the Calypsos. Her motivations, her development, and her characterization from BL2 were all erased so they could humiliate her and fridge her. What they did to Maya was pointless, and it was heartless, and it was bad writing.

Maya sits up with a start, heart pounding, stomach in knots. The bright glow of her tattoos throw the darkness of their little shack in the Backburner into even deeper shadow.

On the worn-down mattress next to her, Krieg stirs. 

She holds her breath, hoping she hasn't awoken him, but knowing that her sudden motion and the bright glow of her siren markings probably has. A moment later, he rolls onto his back, and she can feel him watching her.

"...Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you." 

"What's wrong?" His voice is low and soft, a big change from his typical rough, loud growl. He gets like this occasionally, usually early in the morning, right after they wake up. It never lasts long.

"Weird dream. _Bad_ dream."

"Mnn?" The pitch of his voice hasn't changed, for all the noise of listening interest he just made is familiar; he's still unusually lucid.

"Yeah. I. It started out really weird. And _stupid._" she scowls down at her left hand, which has come to rest on her knee. She clenches her fingers into a fist, causing her tattoos to glow even more brightly, before willing them dim.

"I went back to _Athenas._" She spits the planet's name like an epithet.

"...Why?"

"I don't even know _why._ It just felt 'important'. I left you here, because of some stupid, vague feeling I couldn't even explain to you, and I just...I _left._"

He stirs again, and she unclenches her fist to place her hand on his chest, the easiest part of him to reach in their current configuration. "I will _never_ leave you."

That's the part of the dream that's upset her the most.

He relaxes under her touch, and she lets out her breath, takes a new one, and continues. The dream was so vivid, she's afraid it will always be stuck in her mind, and she'll never be able to get it out.

"I went right back to the abbey. And it was...it wasn't like when I left it. It was different. There was a library filled with books about sirens. Siren power, siren heritage, everything I had ever wanted to know, it was all just...somehow right there where I grew up.

"And there was a girl. I took her on as an apprentice? But she wasn't a siren. I thought she was going to be, though. Because I just...decided that when I died, my powers would go to her. Does being a siren even _work_ like that? I was born with my tattoos..." She trails off, frowning. Krieg withdraws one large hand from beneath the blanket he's still reclining under and places it over hers. The warm heat of his palm is grounding.

"I don't know how long I was there. Years, I think. But one day the abbey was attacked by Maliwan. Like, the corporation, _Maliwan_." Manufacturer of her favorite SMGs. That was a weird brain decision. She breathes a humorless snort of laughter.

"Then Lilith showed up, and her tattoos were gone. There were these other sirens...twins, I think, and one of them was a man. Seriously, what the hell. They'd stolen her powers, and she was looking for a vault key. Brick and Mordecai weren't with her. Neither were you. Neither were any of the others. Like...everyone had just...disappeared and left her to deal with having her powers stolen by herself. She'd brought some new vault hunters with her. But...Jeez, what the actual fuck."

She raises her right hand and scrubs it down her face. With as tight knit as the six vault hunters have become after everything that's happened since their train derailed in the Windshear Waste, the thought that _none_ of them would turn up to help Lilith when she needed it is mind-bogglingly unbelievable.

"And, get this. There was a _vault key_ in the Abbey. Just. Locked away in a giant room no one could get into and no one had ever thought to tell me about."

The more she talks, the stupider this all sounds. Krieg listens patiently, as always. She can feel his gaze on her even though she's not looking at him, and it's comforting.

"So I grabbed the vault key, and took my…_apprentice_…" She's still having a hard time with that particular brain conjuration, "And went with Lilith to...some other planet. Where we opened a vault. The vault hunters went inside, I stayed outside, and the siren twins showed up. One of them had the girl - because of course she'd followed me - and was threatening to kill her, so instead of doing something smart like phaselocking her, or hell, just _shooting_ her, I put the other one in a headlock, and he…" She trails off and takes a deep, centering breath.

"He stole my powers. Lilith told me not to touch either of them, but I did it anyway." 

The second most upsetting thing about the whole dream was how _stupidly_ she had acted.

"And then he kept going, and he _killed_ me. I could feel myself turning to ash, and it hurt like nothing I've ever felt before. And then I woke up."

Krieg's thick fingers curl around her hand as she talks, and she gives them an appreciative squeeze. Her stomach is still in knots, but sharing with Krieg helps.

"I don't...I mean, whatever. I dream about dying sometimes. But never about...I just keep thinking about _leaving._ Why would I drop everything, just when things are finally getting interesting, just when we've just found a map to other vaults, and go back to the _Abbey?_ And why didn't I take you with me?" Dying had sucked. Dying as a result of doing something incredibly stupid had also sucked. But it's the idea that she would ever purposefully leave her best friend behind that's the most upsetting to her.

"Dreams are stupid. They don't mean anything." He's still using his low, lucid voice, which she's still getting used to. The novelty is as welcome a distraction as his words.

"Yeah, you're right," she agrees readily, though she's still unsettled. She's helped him recover from enough nightmares with that exact phrase. It feels strange for him to use them on her, but it's not a bad strange. It's how they've operated since basically Day 1. They watch each other's backs, provide support and comfort where needed, and just generally take care of each other. They both have their strengths and their weaknesses, and those overlap so well, siren and psycho are an unstoppable force of nature. She can't imagine life without him, and she knows he can't imagine life without her.

_I wouldn't have died if he'd been there._

"...Ugh. Let's go back to sleep."

He grumbles an agreement, and rolls onto his side again, turning his broad back to her. He likes it when she jetpacks, and honestly, it's Maya's preferred way to share a bed with him, too. It feels really good to wrap an arm around his ribs, and to drift off to sleep with her front pressed snugly against his back. She starts to stretch out again once he's settled, but stops halfway.

"Hey, Krieg?"

"Mnn?"

"Roll over?"

He does it without question, just as he does most of the things she asks of him. She can barely see his face in the dark, but the soft glow of her tattoos creates enough light she can tell his expression is sleepy and content. She smiles when she sees it, and finishes laying down, pressing her back snugly against Krieg's chest. The unpleasant remnants of the nightmare melt away in the heat of his embrace, and the sleep that claims her shortly thereafter is sweet and dreamless.


End file.
